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The Manual
- Thread starter andrew
- Start date
Nice!
All great suggestions and posts. What will be critical is once all suggestions/questions are gathered, then prioritizing what are the critical factors to focus on for success. What are pitfalls? What do I do to help or hinder the whole family's success? Am I giving glory to God or self? Many times what seems to be not so obvious or seems not very important, one finds them essential. i. e. Love, faith, communication. What is critical for husbands, wives? Some items may be more important to men, but not wives and visa versa. A wife's perspective (which may be top of the "list" on protities). Us men can tend to get tunnel vision instead of seeing all the picture. Finally, IMO, this input is a fantastic show of good communication.
In my 35 years of knowing that polygyny was right by God's Word I have found a very critical aspect of its application. Yes, many mistakes. There was always one element which was paramount. Love. Mostly me, of course. When I examine the failures I wanted to know what went wrong? Why did it not work? My Love was not where it need to be. Polygyny should only add to the Love, but many times it takes away. Why? Someone's Love isn't where it needs to be. The same reason churches are filled with divorces. Why? Because they major on a minor? Expansion. Donations. Fame. VBS. Are we living to serve (Love's action)? The subject covered most in the Bible is typically spoken of the least, Love. Love has only one objective. To fulfill itself. If my application of my faith or polygyny is not growing, nurturing, expanding the Love of and for others I need to be careful. Polygyny is only a part of our faith, like salvation, redemption, baptism, fellowship, winning souls, etc. In my personal walk, I have discovered that without Real Love/His Love, my faith in anything is meaningless. It will fail, regardless of confidence or sincerity. We will eventually come to a consensus on legal aspects, what is important decisions, personal issues, conflict resolutions, etc, etc for the "manual"; but without Real Love the "manual" will mean very little. Finally, in my desire to understand Real Love I have discovered a good definition of that sometimes elusive four letter word. "Real Love is that which causes one person to desire the most good to come to another person and is willing to do whatever is necessary to bring it about." Hope this can be our focus, serving/Loving others.
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Agape
Yeesssss Sir! AMEN!!
Yes Andrew. Men's volume, women's volume, and family's volume. Maybe even a children's volume.
When I think of "The Manual(tm)" I think there should be some "The Bible says this..." about what it means to be a Biblical or Christian family as a sort of foundation. What would that look like? What are you trying to achieve? What is the goal?
And then from there ask the question about how to do it in practice in our cutlure and what problems people have had and how they solved them or failed to solve them using real world examples and case studies.
And then from there ask the question about how to do it in practice in our cutlure and what problems people have had and how they solved them or failed to solve them using real world examples and case studies.
In thinking of Love, it seems to me, that often times we love for selfish reasons. We love something or someone for how it or they, makes me look or feel. A person or a suit of clothes may invoke feelings of love from us for selfish reasons. To truly love someone or something, even God, because of what 'they' are is a rare find.
Or in spite of what they are.
In defining a foundation there are a plethora of scriptures that emphatically define the foundation. It expressly states in Matthew 22:35-40 what our foundation for anything and everything is: Love. Also, real Love has nothing to do with a physical attraction, an appearance of the body, a color of hair, skin, or even sex. That is not to say these can't be an expression and to some, arguably a part of it. From studying Real Love for most of my life I have found this definition to be a good one. "Real Love is that which causes one person to desire the most good to come to another person and is willing to do whatever it takes to bring it about." Love has one goal. To fulfill itself. I have claimed, "If we can't see God's Love in every Scrpture from Genesis to the Revelation of Jesus Christ, then we need to read it again. Paul taught this plainly in 1Corinthians 13. Typically, Love and Grace are God's spiritual twin sisters. Also, the devil has twin sisters, narcissism and pride.
Gotta save this one. Nice.